Seriously, who wouldn't at least be intrigued by a game with a title like this? This isn't the original; it has far more sophisticated graphics, a few lines of dialog and the opening cutscene have been altered a little, and most heartbreaking of all, Zak's rendition of "Pop Goes The Weasel" on the kazoo has been replaced by the first four notes of the Indiana Jones theme song for some reason. Only one alteration is really an issue: the inventory item hotkeys only work for the top three items in the list, as the original list only had three. Since you can use the mouse, however, this is perfectly workable. And thankfully, they've got rid of that Exit Visa Code copy protection! However, it is 99.9% identical to the 80s classic. The puzzles are tough and the story is unique, there's a good dash of humor sprinkled liberally throughout and one thing this version has that the original lacked is ambient sounds. This means that when you're in Zak's apartment in San Francisco, you hear the sounds of traffic outside. Unlike later LucasArts adventure games, it is possible to die in this one, but not easy. That is to say, the game will always give you a chance to correct what you're doing; you have three screens of falling to open a parachute, several chances and warnings NOT to go back into the lair of the Sphinx Guardian...you get the idea. The most common death - running out of air on Mars - is easily avoided by pressurizing the hostel and later finding a way to adjust the atmosphere, which means that you can abandon anyone there without worrying about the oxygen levels ;) If you only buy one classic game this year, make it this one. You won't be sorry.
And that's something I rarely say about a game. There are one or two improvements in the Gold edition - the missions are slightly easier - but there are a couple of big changes that ruined my enjoyment of this otherwise classic game. 1. Children ORIGINAL Children would only be born after you had the housing. If you had two jobs you needed to fill, you would build one house - enough for two families - and two children would be born the next day. This meant that not only did you not have to worry about exploding populations, you could use your resources to develop projects you really needed, such as taverns and soap makers. GOLD Children pop out like peas during the day, overnight...your tribe breed like rabbits and you have no say. This means your Foremen (or women) have to spend most of their time and resources building houses. (Seriously, if there isn't any living space and your tribe members never die of old age, you'd think they'd hold off on adding to the population). 2. Building Cap/Upgrade Village ORIGINAL At no point did you have to upgrade to the next level if you didn't want to. Well, alright, sometimes you had to - one mission where you had to produce goods only available in level 2 towns springs to mind - but you could do it once you were ready and just keep peacefully growing your village until you had enough materials to construct the level 2 production lines that your tribe would demand, such as pastries and soap. GOLD Once you reach a certain number of buildings of any type, you HAVE to upgrade before you're allowed to build any more. On one level, I can see where the designers were coming from - a settlement with three hundred buildings can't really be called a village anymore - but combine that with the extra children rule and it makes for a nightmare. Before you know where you are, you've had to build an extra four houses and half the ones you need before you upgrade can only be built after you've upgraded. For me, at least, frustrating.
While I liked MM6 and 7, this one was the absolute best out of the three (I have a special soft spot for it as it was the only one out of the three I ever managed to complete!) Let's break it down: THE GOOD: You can select from a wide range of characters (and species!) for your starting character, and you can hire and fire other members of your party, so you're no longer stuck with a group where nobody can repair an item. Just hire a knight, have him/her fix it and then get rid of 'em. You can hire dragons! While having dragons may make it a little too easy for some players, it's still a great touch and nice to get away from the 'all dragons are evil' thing The difficulty level is very good. In MM6 and 7 I found that I'd have to go away and kill several monsters in between quests just to level up enough to attempt the next part of the story. With this one, the difficulty level is just right; hard enough to be a bit of a challenge, but easy enough to keep right on going. The automap feature is VERY good, as is the ability to add your own entries. Fed up with not knowing which path leads to which new land? Can't remember where that Sword teacher was? Can't remember where to find the guy who'll pay you for Naga hides? Simply add a little dot on the map (the game will update it with teacher locations automatically) and you're sorted! THE BAD: In this version, there's no way to skip cutscenes. Not really a problem, but it bugs me a little that I have to sit through the same opening movie over and over again before I can get to the main menu. AND THE JUST PLAIN MISC: People have commented about the graphics. While it's true they aren't the best (even taking into account the fact that the game is over ten years old) they're adequate enough and the quality of the gameplay more than makes up for them. To summarize, this is a truly fantastic game and well worth a buy!
